Town area closed due to public sex to reopen

YARMOUTHPORT - A conservation area that was closed in November because of “illicit sexual activity” will reopen at the start of 2009 but authorities will prosecute and publicize violators.

Patrick Cassidy

YARMOUTHPORT - A conservation area that was closed in November because of “illicit sexual activity” will reopen at the start of 2009.

The Dennis Pond Conservation Area will open Jan. 1, Yarmouth police announced today. The conservation area, which is located off Willow Street and has 3,285 feet of walking trails, was shuttered because of public health and environmental concerns associated with the sexual activity.

Police and the town’s natural resource officers will monitor the area and they say that anyone caught engaging in public sex will be subject to arrest and their identity and booking photograph will be provided to the media, according to a press release from Yarmouth police.

Motion-sensitive still-cameras previously set up in the area documented large numbers of men meeting near the trails. Those photographs were destroyed earlier this month because they would have otherwise been public record and there were no crimes caught in the images, police said.